Apple offers solution to iPhone 5 lens flare issue. Sort of...

Just move the camera, duh!

The issue occurs when a photo is taken with an out-of-frame light source, such as the sun, impinges upon the photo or video recording, causing a halo effect to appear.

Apple says users can get around the issue by - you guessed it - positioning the camera differently.

In a post on the company's official support forums Apple suggests adjusting the camera, so the light source enters the lens at a slightly different angle.

Purple pain, purple pain

"A purplish or other colored flare, haze, or spot is imaged from out-of-scene bright light sources during still image or video capture," says the Symptoms section of the post.

The suggested resolution to the issue reads as follows: "Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect."

There's no admission of a fault on Apple's part or what may be causing the issue, but the support post follows an emailed reply to one iPhone 5 owner claiming the issue was 'normal'.

The forum posting inspires memories of Steve Jobs' famous 'just hold it differently' reply to an unhappy user during the iPhone 4 antennagate saga.